scrolling through the listings on 591, I’m amazed how crappy the photos posted by the agents are: cluttered rooms, trash, bad lighting etc. even if the place is decent, it looks like a dump.
back home the agents usually make the place look nice before showing it to potential renters / buyers, but here they dont seem to see value in it.
why is that? something cultural I’m missing ?
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Are you looking at rentals? Agents don’t usually care much about those, it’s high-effort and low-reward compared to sales.
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It’s amazing how many apartments for rent I’ve looked at in Taiwan that look like absolute crap. Dusty, bare wires sticking out of walls, peeling paint, trash on floors, grease coating the kitchen walls, etc. There seems to be little concept of making an apartment look good when advertising it for rental or sale.
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Cos that’s what they look like. They don’t even clean the places and they are full of landlords left over crap.
What annoys me the most is when they try to make it look bigger than it is and you go there and it’s tiny. That’s just wasting everybody’s time.
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That’s for the “feels like home” effect. 3 pictures of the bathroom sink and the utterly useless balcony with 30 year old washing machine on it to show where the house agent’s priorities are.
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Right? One photo with a fisheye lens and I nope right out.
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All of the places in my block and around me that have been flipped were immediately gutted and redone by the new owners. I think the buyers would have been focussed on distance to schools, public transport and other lifestyle factors. And number one - price per ping.
As for rentals, well in my experience it’s a walk away deal so the agent rocks up, takes some photos, shows you through then you are on your own to deal with the landlord once you sign. They take 1 month of rent commission up front for the introduction, then they are gone. I’m not talking about ‘foreigner friendly’ agencies here by the way. So very little effort - snap the photos on a mobile phone, show up once, and they are done. If I see pretty photos on 591, it is a landlord hoping to extract a premium from some outside country person. It will still be the same odorous noisy Taiwan apartment underneath all the blonde wood and fake gold.
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Bwahahaaha. You forgot to add the decorative “flower” wall decals/stickers.
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Many years ago, I looked at one that had a room that looked like an episode of hoarders. The landlord said if I rented it then he would clean it out… That seems really stupid to me. If landlords clean up the place, it will stay rented at premium prices.
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All depends l can see lots the apartments for rent with good pics
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There are pros that buy up a crappy place in a 40 year building, fix it up, load it with show furniture and try to flip the place. Maybe that’s less common now with the change in the tax code, but a few years back it was very common when we bought our place in Hualien. I like medium level decoration, but when it’s overdone, I am very suspicious.
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Rather them be honest than lie though. Still nasty af
This is Taiwan, people live in a cluttered world. So yes, they don’t care.
I’ve asked Taiwanese friends. They all say “no one” cares what the inside looks like — size and location are “all” that matter to buyers here. I mean, obviously not all, but enough that there is no reason to make sure the photo is in the right direction or even clear if most people don’t care. How many times have you had one photo of the view from maybe the apartment’s window and fifteen photos of the “surrounding area”, which includes Taipei 101, CKS Memorial hall, the Maokong gondola, and the Neihu skyline? Like “oh, this property is in Taipei. Thank you so much, realtor, for making sure I know that there are these things located “near” this unit. That was my priority, which wasn’t possible from looking at a map, far more than the crumbling state of the walls and floor.”
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Pretty much everyone renovates before they move in, so there is no point in cleaning it since it will be renovated.
591 sucks.
If it’s agents they don’t care because all they get is a month’s rent, and lots of landlords don’t even want them. If the landlord himself is posting pictures, he isn’t a professional and so have no idea how to dress up the photo unless the landlord likes doing photography as a side.
For sales, that might be different as agents get a LOT from it. Given how inflated house prices are here, I imagine they’d make a lot of effort on this.
My current shop didn’t even come from 591. A friend introduced it. Alternatively if you are searching for a place to rent try just driving around and look for a for rent sign. I doubt I’d be able to find a shop as large as mine anywhere in New Taipei city for the price I paid…
Because in Taiwanese opinion, the apartment is an investment first, place to live second. The “niceness” is the part of the unit that depreciates but the location only becomes more important down the line.
If you are lucky you will find a rental that a family lived in recently, preferably the owner. Most things work and will be few problems.
Unfortunately they often try to offload their 'i don’t want this old furniture, table and bed in my new place so I will leave it here ’ on the new tenants.
If place has been sold and changed hands can have a lot of problems after you move in. Also if the landlord hasn’t lived there for ten years or More everything will have started to breakdown usually including the aircons. Always check all the equipment and get them o agree it will be kept functioning or replaced if broken.
Most apartments here have a toilet odour problem after twenty years or even before that. The pipes get blocked or they aren’t laid down correctly.
Check the windows for noise prevention, basically only the newest houses have them if lucky.
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The only thing that windows in Taiwan are good for is blocking sunlight.
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